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recently opened Renaissance Paris Republique hotel. Tis hotel occupies a former office building on a side road off the impressive Place de la Republique square, a building that had become something of a local landmark due to the graffiti art painted within each of its many large porthole windows.

A 28 GS Magazine

jaunt across the English Channel (or, to be more accurate, underneath it) for a couple of days at EquipHotel gave me the opportunity to book into the

Unoccupied for several years, the property

was used as a squat for a time and the renowned street artist, Kouka, decided to ‘guard’ the building by painting an army of 77 lance bearing African Warriors, one for each window. During the refurbishment the images were erased but when the hotel reopened, and due to popular demand, the artist returned to add three new warriors which can be seen from the street below. Tis is entirely apt as the hotel falls into the ‘art hotel’ classification. Art features heavily within the hotel, some as permanent fixtures

and some on display for just a few months at a time: a regularly changing art exhibition. Te public spaces, occupying the ground

and basement floors, are notable: on-trend 1970’s colours are prevalent on walls and within cushion fabrics and upholstered furniture throughout. Even the expanse of light wooden shelving provides a nod to that decade. Te long galley-shaped space has been broken here and there with the addition of curved walls, installed to provide visual interest and to create a number of zoned areas that house the restaurant, bar